The Tools of Re-Geography

Perhaps a significant way to track the incredible scale and speed of the current global construction boom is to take a measure of the number of tools produced.

The Evening Standard reports that “Earthmoving equipment maufacturer JCB has delivered record results on the back of growth in emerging markets. Latest accounts show that after-tax profit for the 12 months to the end of 2006 soared 70%”

Sales in India grew 36% and in Africa by 66.5%

Machine sales rose to over 55,000 – their World market share rose to 10.4 per cent from 9.6 per cent. So that makes 528846 JCB type machines released to work over the earths surface in 2006 alone.

Just imagining the billions of tonnes of earth being moved right at this moment – thousands of miles of road being laid, contours being flattened, foundations being dug, cables and pipes being buried and you start to realise that the planet is undergoing a concerted phase of total terraforming – a phenomenon one could describe are Re-Geographing.